Anthony Bourdain's Working on an International Hawker Market in New York

After diversions to writing, TV, and book publishing, Anthony Bourdain's coming back to restaurants—not as a cook, but as the organizer of a massive market devoted to international street food. The Postreported this morning that Bourdain is bringing the food court to the financial district and is looking for developers now.

Eater got more details about the plan to feature "cuisines from all around the world," which for Bourdain means cooking from the likes of Singaporean hawker centers, Mexican street vendors, and the Spanish Boqueria.

Food courts like this one have acted as sites of cultural preservation. In Singapore, for instance, hawker centers were built by the government as a way to get cooks out of the street without killing their business. The Essex Street Market in New York was built for the same reason.

Bourdain goes on: "I hope to soon be able to enjoy a really good Chicken Rice in NYC." So say we all.

Max Falkowitz used to work here. These days, he’s a food and travel writer for The New York Times, Saveur, Food & Wine, New York magazine’s Grub Street, GQ, and elsewhere. He’s also the coauthor of The Dumpling Galaxy Cookbook with Helen You.